Mistaken Relationship
by Buffintruda
Summary: Eponine and Grantaire are tired of people making incorrect assumptions about their relationship. Written for Aromantic Spectrum Awareness Week.


**This is the sixth out of seven oneshots I have for Aro Spec Awareness Week.**

It was the first time the three of them had had a girls' night in nearly two months. During summer break, it seemed at least one of them had been busy every day, either out of town on vacation, working, or having some prior arrangement. But now, school was about to start, and so they managed to find a day that would work for everyone.

Cosette, Musichetta, and Éponine were busy catching up on everything interesting that had happened. They had texted and emailed each other a lot, but it was different seeing people face to face.

"How's your boyfriend?" Musichetta asked at one point.

"Are you talking to me?" Éponine asked when Cosette didn't respond.

"Yeah, you. What's Grantaire been getting up to?"

"Grantaire?" Éponine said incredulously. "Where did you get the impression that I was dating _Grantaire?"_

"You aren't?" Cosette asked, confused. She exchanged a look with Musichetta.

"No! Why would both of you think that?"

"I mean, you never said, but we just assumed..." Musichetta trailed off. "Sorry for jumping to conclusions." She laughed. "I was wondering why you hadn't told either of us that you were dating him."

"Okay, but seriously, why did you think we were going out?"

"I saw you eating lunch with him at Musain a few weeks ago," Cosette admitted.

"We were both there to meet Bahorel, but he didn't show. But even if that wasn't the case, why would that mean anything? I eat food with lots of my friends, and it's never romantic. That's pretty heteronormative of you to assume that it was."

"Yeah, I guess it would be if that was the only occasion, but it's clear to anyone who sees the two of you that you have feelings for each other."

"What do you mean?" Éponine asked, feeling a little attacked and uncomfortable.

"Well, you spend more time with him than most of the rest of our group."

"Yeah, 'cause he's the only one who isn't a social justice nerd."

"I don't know what else you would expect from a social justice club," Cosette said.

"Anyway," Musichetta continued, "The two of you always seem to be touching each other."

Éponine shrugged. "He's a tactile person. He cuddles Joly and Bossuet just as much."

"And I know both of them well enough to know that they usually initiate it. Plus you started hanging out around him a lot more about the same time you started losing interest in Marius."

This was also the same time Marius started dating Cosette, Éponine did not point out. She had needed a friend who would understand. Now, things between her and Marius and her and Cosette were better, and she still spent more time with Grantaire after realizing they had more in common than she initially thought. Éponine sighed and changed the subject, not in the mood to argue and explain why she didn't have romantic feelings for him.

...

"Where's Cosette? And why are you here?" Éponine sat down across the table from Grantaire at the Café Musain. Between work and Les Amis meetings and informal gatherings, she seemed to spend all of her time here that she did not spend at school or sleeping.

He shrugged. "I was going to ask the same of you. She told me to meet _her_ here, not you."

"Same. Was there some sort of misunderstanding?"

"Unless we misunderstood the exact same thing, I don't think so. Still, it's not like I object to spending time in the presence of a charming young lady, such as yourself."

Éponine snorted, and Grantaire grinned.

"How was your first week of school?" Éponine asked, for lack of nothing better to say.

"The same as always, of course. Each day of school is almost exactly like the rest. This was merely the start of a slightly altered pattern. This-"

"I get the point," Éponine interrupted before it went on too long. Grantaire had a tendency to ramble. "My friends seem to have gotten it into their heads that I'm in love with you. I swear, every time I so much as glance at you, they wiggle their eyebrows at me."

"Me too. Yesterday, Courfeyrac asked me when I was going to admit my feelings for you. He was trying to be supportive and encouraging which would be pretty funny if it wasn't so awkward. It's odd, because I thought he was convinced I was in love with Enjolras a month ago."

"You sort of are," Éponine pointed out. "Do you think Cosette and Musi told Courfeyrac of their stupid theory and now they're all conspiring behind our backs?"

"That would explain things. Shame on them for assuming such clearly untrue things. Don't they know we're too aro for each other?"

"They actually don't. We haven't told anyone."

"True, true."

...

"How was your date with Grantaire?" Cosette asked Éponine the next day, Monday.

"Fine, though I was expecting _you_ not him."

Cosette shrugged innocently. "I'm glad it turned out okay," she said, smirking slightly, before sitting down at the lunch table next to Musichetta.

"Hey, do you want to go on a fishing trip with me this weekend?" Musichetta asked.

"No," Éponine snapped, ignoring the other girl's hurt look.

Éponine got her lunch from the cafeteria, then sat down in her usual spot where Grantaire joined her.

"I had my suspicions before, but a few minutes ago, Cosette practically confirmed that she was trying to set us up together. Then Musi suspiciously asked me to go on a fishing trip with her this weekend. And I know for a fact that she hates fishing."

"I'm not surprised," Grantaire sighed, looking troubled. "Courfeyrac wanted me to go hiking with him on Saturday. I don't know why he thought I would agree, but I bet if we had, we would have 'coincidentally' ran into each other there. And Courf and Musi probably would have 'mysteriously' had to leave us alone. Bahorel is probably in on it too. He did almost the exact same thing as Cosette did a month ago."

"He's probably not working with them. Musi and Cosette genuinely thought I was dating you because of that meeting."

"Fine, then they're working separately. It doesn't matter."

"I just don't understand," Éponine said, frustrated. "Why do they do this? It literally does not benefit them in any way, shape or form."

"The idea of love is romanticized and blown out of proportion. Those who experience normal romantic attraction, enjoy it, especially when it is returned, and get carried away by their own feelings. They think it's the best thing in the world, that everyone should feel what they feel, and try to make it so the people they care about experience the same joys they do. Or, at least, that's what I think. As a lithromantic person, I don't actually know why people want their crushes returned." He sounded fairly disturbed by the mere idea.

"Yeah. The one crush I had was fucking awful. I would never wish it on my friend."

"I just wish they would stop," Grantaire muttered. "I mean, I know I joke-flirt with you occasionally, but I hate that people think we are or should be together like that. I feel disgusted by the thought."

"Look," Éponine said, "If it's genuinely making you that uncomfortable, we need to put a stop to it."

"How? By coming out? We're both aro-spec, not fully aro."

"They're our friends. If we tell them in full seriousness to quit it, they should. And yes, I think coming out would help, but you don't have to if you don't want to."

"No, I probably should. It will put a stop to any of this sort of thing in the future, and they all already know I'm bi and it's not like being queer is a problem in a group where, like, maybe one person at most is straight. It's just, I don't want to make too much fuss... The people I'm closest to - you, Joly, and Bossuet - never assume or press anything. I could just ignore the rest of them."

"I wouldn't be doing it just for you! Cosette and Musichetta are my best friends, and it doesn't disturb me as much as it does you, but it's annoying and so completely wrong and I want them to stop. You can do this with me, or I'll do it by myself, but it's going to get done."

"Sorry. I didn't mean to sound so selfish. It's just, I don't know what to do or how," he said, hesitant and uncertain. "And it's easier to do nothing."

"How about this? The next time someone says or does anything to imply that we should be together, I yell at them, and you join in if you want or just watch if you don't. You don't even have to decide now."

"I look forward to seeing that," he laughed. Then, more seriously, "That sounds great. Thank you."

"Sure."

...

In payment for Bahorel, Feuilly, and Jehan's band playing live music there every Saturday, and because she had taken a liking to her most frequent customers, the owner of Café Musain let the Amis have the backroom to themselves on Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday afternoons. They used it to hold their official Amis de l'ABC meetings.

By the end of the meeting on Tuesday, things had devolved from productive discussion to off-topic chatter.

Éponine was talking to Combeferre about their Chemistry homework, though both had gotten a little sidetracked from the original topic. When Enjolras butted in to ask Combeferre a quick question about the book he had mentioned earlier in the meeting, Éponine took the opportunity to glance around the room.

It wasn't really crowded, but there weren't many empty chairs. Most people had a food or drink of some sort in front of them, and were gathered in groups of two to four. She spotted Grantaire sitting across from Courfeyrac, looking like he wanted nothing more than to leave. He glanced towards Éponine, as if he was trying to telepathically ask for her help. Immediately, she abandoned Combeferre and Enjolras and crossed the room to them.

"-so in denial if you think she's just your friend," Courfeyrac was saying. "I mean, come on. You-"

"Can't you see that you're making him uncomfortable?" Éponine snapped. Courfeyrac had grinned at her when he first saw her, but it quickly faded when he noticed her glare. "Listen up," she said, raising her voice so the whole room, which quickly quieted, could hear. "We've both had more than enough of this. A lot of you people have gotten the idea into your heads that Grantaire and I have romantic feelings for each other. Both he and I have denied this, but some of you kept pressing anyway, trying to make us admit our nonexistent feelings for each other, or set us up on a date. I was prepared to ignore it at first, but it's gone on too far, and it's getting really annoying." She stopped as Grantaire stood up hesitantly. So he _was_ going to say something. Éponine knew that although he had no problem attracting attention to himself, Grantaire found it difficult to present or give a speech in front of a crowd, which was part of why she had given him an out. She was a little proud that he hadn't taken it.

"Not only that, it makes me feel wrong and gross whenever one of you insinuates something," Grantaire added, softer and more exposed than his usual raucous self.

"So I'm telling you all to stop. I'm grayaromantic, so I rarely feel romantic attraction. And I'm homosexual so I'm not attracted to Grantaire at all." That last admission wasn't necessary, but now was as good of a time as any to officially come out completely.

"I'm lithromantic. That means I feel romantic attraction, but I don't want it returned. I don't have romantic feelings for her, and the thought of being in a relationship with anyone makes me feel sick."

"We shouldn't have had to make a speech like this in front of everyone to get you to stop. We shouldn't have had to feel like we needed to tell you we were on the spectrum to make you back off. And even if we weren't aro-spec, what you did was still rude and inconsiderate. You shouldn't have assumed that just because we were close, we were in romantic love with each other, and you definitely shouldn't have kept pushing when we told you that you were wrong. I expect apologies from everyone who played a part in this, especially to Grantaire." Éponine concluded, knowing that her expression was fierce and threatening enough that nobody would dare try and back out. About half the people in the room looked shocked, having little idea what had been going on, while the other half was clearly guilty.

Musichetta stood up first. "I am truly sorry. I call myself your friend, but I didn't notice when I went too far and didn't stop. I'd heard terms like aromantic and amatonormativity before, but I guess I forgot them or ignored them or thought, somehow, they couldn't apply here with you. Nothing I say will really make up for it, but I will watch myself. I swear I'll educate myself and never make the same mistakes for anyone again."

Éponine nodded. She wasn't ready to forgive anyone quite yet, but that was a good promise.

"That's a good idea," Combeferre said. He was one of the ones who hadn't looked guilty. "Next meeting, we should talk about amatonormativity and aro-phobia and how we can stop both."

"We should have done this earlier. I'm aromantic and asexual, but I never talked about either. I suppose I thought you would all think we had better things to focus on, and that none of you would care," Enjolras added.

"No problem is worth silencing here. You should know that, Enjolras," Bahorel said. "If there's anything we can do to make the world better, we should give our best effort, no matter how small an issue, which this really isn't. I'm sorry too for assuming and doing things I had no right to. I'll do what Musichetta wants to do too."

"I'll accept that. If you all learn more and promise not to do anything like that again, then I'm satisfied. And if we raise awareness about aromanticism and amatonormativity and arophobia and do things to improve our community in those areas, as a group, not as part of your apology, then I completely support that idea." She looked to her side. "Grantaire?"

"Um, yeah. I agree with that." He sat down again, looking a little awkward and embarrassed, but mostly relieved.

Others voiced their agreement, apologies, and suggestions for the future.

Éponine turned to Grantaire. "I think this went better than I expected."


End file.
